Michel Simonidy (Mihail Simonidi) (1870-1933) - Painting “Landscape”, watercolor / paper

The artist came from a family of Greeks settled in Muntenia and who gave school-based scholars. He was born in 1870 and his Greek name, Menelas, was transformed into its Romanian form by Michael in order, following the establishment of the artist in Paris, to take the shape of the Frenchman who consecrated him, Michel.

In an era in which the great urban and architectural orders of Romania they needed the support not only of engineers and architects, but also of the artists who were to decorate the interiors, Simonidy returned to Romania intermittently. However, its plastic traces were durable. The most famous plastic work is related to the decoration of the hall of honor of the House of Savings and Consignments in Bucharest, CEC Palace on Calea Victoriei, the work of the French architect Paul Gottereau built between 1897 and 1900. The ceiling of the council chamber of the said institution also includes other creations of the artist, Fortune distributing its benefits to the Romanians after the War of Independence from 1877-1878, the star and reputation. A large replica of the first work in this series won the silver medal at the grand World's Fair in Paris since 1900 (to which Romania impressed especially by the richness of its oil reserves).

Simonidy cultivated a refined symbolist painting, with inclinations towards allegory. work The death of Mithridates was awarded in Paris as one of the valuable works of the Paris Salon, with an allegorical-romantic subject. The portraits of the king Carol I and of Queen Elizabeth, carried out at the same time, supervised the meetings of the Council, and at the entrance guarded another work, The work. During the communist regime, however, portraits of sovereigns were completely destroyed.